Three months before the Times Square terror bombing by a Pakistani-American with ties to terrorists in Pakistan, the Obama administration knew the style of attack, the type of explosives to be used and when the attack would come, yet when the attack happened the administration played dumb with its initial reaction being to downplay the attack as an unsophisticated "one-off" that was a "potential" terror attack.On February 10, I wrote an article at FR based on Vice President Joe Biden's comments about coming terror attacks on the U.S. that were broadcast later that day on CNN's Larry King Live.King mentioned...

Two people have been taken into custody on possible immigration violations following a sweep today in Watertown and at other locations across the Northeast in connection with the investigation into the attempted May 1 Times Square bombing, federal officials tell the Herald. FBI agents were also seen at two gas stations in Brookline - one on Harvard Street and another on Cypress Street. The agents were seen carefully examining a silver Honda at the Harvard Street station, but it is unclear whether the activity is related to the Times Square probe. FBI agents have also been seen at a home...

There’s no better way to summarize president Obama’s approach to fighting the war against jihad than this: For the next three years, we’re betting our safety on the proposition that Islamic thugs and terrorists will prove to be more incompetent than the Obama administration. In the aftermath of the Times Square bombing attempt, is there another way to consider it? How many “isolated incidents” have to pile up before the president wakes up to the fact that there’s a pattern, one that just might have something to do with a particular fundamentalist religious outlook, and that the politically correct bunker...

For all the confusion about who Faisal Shahzad is and how he got that way, there is one sure thing the failed Times Square bomber has shown us: The future of terrorism. “Our threat picture in the US just got a lot more complicated,” says Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter, a private group specializing in counter-terrorism that works with American and European military and intelligence agencies. In short, it’s no longer just al Qaeda aiming to strike within the United States: “Now we have half-a-dozen or more very skilled groups looking to execute attacks,” he says. “Even getting close is...

New York City has thousands of police surveillance cameras, which really come in handy when a terrorist strikes. After the car bomb attempt last weekend, they captured an image of the vehicle driving through Times Square and one of a guy taking off his shirt who looked nothing like the guy arrested Monday. Which raises the question: What good are cameras? The debate over them is often framed as hardheaded law enforcement types versus wimpy civil libertarians. Whether the cameras actually work in practice to help solve and prevent crime generally gets ignored. It shouldn't. Leave aside those airy privacy...

The stunning events of September 11, 2001, were a potential template for future terrorist attacks. But since then, al-Qaida and its affiliates have been unable to mount a similar encore in the United States. The foiled Times Square attack may be a sign that these groups have been forced to shift tactics to smaller operations that are less spectacular, but are also harder to detect. Former CIA counterterrorism chief Robert Grenier says the failed Times Square bombing last Saturday may indicate that al-Qaida and its allies have abandoned more grandiose plans for the United States and are emphasizing smaller but...

Another Obama administration nominee, Robert Harding for director of the Transportation Security Administration, has bitten the dust after investigators discovered his defense-contracting company collected millions more federal money than it was entitled to. Mr. Harding blamed the overcharge on his accountants. His company also got a federal contract under a "set-aside" program for service-disabled veterans. His service-related disability? Sleep apnea. Mr. Harding slinks away two months after Erroll Southers, a former counterterrorism supervisor for the Los Angeles airport police and a favorite of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., took himself out of the running for the TSA top job after admitting...

SNIPPET: "BRUSSELS, March 24 (Reuters) - SNIPPET: "There is a Venn diagram that you could draw with overlap between al Qaeda and organised crime," said Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and a former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at the U.S. Treasury. "But in the real world, as opposed to the Jack Bauer world, you don't have the Sicilian mafia and Osama bin Laden's guys meeting at the hip," he told Reuters in an interview, referring to the fictional counter-terrorism agent in the TV series 24. Levitt, a former terrorism analyst with the FBI and a...

The reinvention of Al Qaeda: NYPD terror-fighters say the enemy has evolved and we must adapt, tooBy David Cohen and Richard Falkenrath Wednesday, March 3rd 2010, 11:58 AM As we learn more about the maturity of their plans and the capability of their weaponry, the Najibullah Zazi terrorist plot against our subway system is a stark reminder that Al Qaeda is a resilient organization - one that has maintained an ability to recruit and plan operations while its objective to strike New York City remains unabated. Despite the best efforts of the U.S. government and its allies to destroy Al...

Ten more U.S. airports are getting new scanners capable of detecting explosives like those carried by the alleged Christmas Day bomber, an administration official said Friday. The new machines at airports including Boston’s Logan, Chicago’s O’Hare and Charlotte’s Douglas will take full body scans of airline passengers and can detect explosives hidden under clothing. LAX airport in Los Angeles, which already has one of the advanced scanners operating in its international terminal, will receive eight additional scanners, a Democratic member of Congress said. The Transportation Security Administration bought 150 of the advanced imaging technology machines in September with $25 million...

"Pirates 'smuggling al-Qaeda fighters' into Somalia Somali Islamists bent on turning their land into an international haven for Al Qaeda are using pirate gangs to offer foreign militants safe passage into the country, The Sunday Telegraph has been told." SNIPPET: "The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates' services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile...

President Obama signed the renewal of the Patriot Act in the quiet of a slow-news Saturdayâ€“the Act was set to expire Sunday, February 28â€“as reported by The Hill. Photo Credit: AP Photo The reauthorization did NOT include any reforms to the current Patriot Actâ€“an odd display of agreement and submission toÂ Bush-era policyâ€“even though the Democrats had the numbers to reform the Act. The continuance of the current Patriot Act signals that Democrats are fearful of further controversary in light of Americanâ€™s distrust and poor approval ratings of the Democrat-controlled Congress. From the Hill: The House approved the bill 315-97...

With virtually zero debate - or media attention - President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension for what many considered the most crucial and controversial aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act. The provisions, set to expire Sunday without the signature of Obama, include extensions to allow: -1) "roving" wiretaps, permitting surveillance on multiple phones and e-mail addresses. -2) court-approved seizures of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives reauthorized the Patriot Act for one year Thursday. The vote was 315-97 . Many liberals in the House opposed the controversial act, saying it tramps Constitutional protections and civil liberties. *snip* The Senate ok'd the package earlier this week. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

Senate Democrats are pushing for a short-term extension of key provisions in the Patriot Act as part of a package of must-pass measures. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to ask for unanimous consent to pass an extension for a host of measures set to expire February 28, according to Senate sources. The request could be made as early as Tuesday night. The large package of bills includes a year-long extension of three provisions of the anti-terrorism law known a the Patriot Act, as well as extensions for expiring tax provisions, including unemployment insurance, COBRA, flood insurance, the...

Though the White House won't want to admit it, Bush lawyers were protecting the executive's power to fight a vigorous war on terror. Barack Obama may not realize it, but I may have just helped save his presidency. How? By winning a drawn-out fight to protect his powers as commander in chief to wage war and keep Americans safe. He sure didn't make it easy. When Mr. Obama took office a year ago, receiving help from one of the lawyers involved in the development of George W. Bush's counterterrorism policies was the furthest thing from his mind. Having won a...

The international law on assassination is clear enough; assassination is murder and can be an act of aggression. The Dubai authorities are entitled to arrest and try the assassins of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh if they can catch them. They would be entitled to try to sentence them under Dubai law, though they would have a duty to provide a fair trial.That is the ruling in law, but there is a separate issue of morality. Many Israelis undoubtedly feel that Mr Mabhouh was a dangerous terrorist and that Mossad—if it was responsible—was acting legitimately in self-defence. Yet there are interesting differences between...

Joseph Stack's flight into the side of an Austin office building Thursday was a crime of vengeance by a man clearly angry at the Internal Revenue Service. But should it be called terrorism? Judging from the rambling manifesto he left online, academics and terrorism experts said Friday that they doubt that Stack's attack was more than a "cathartic outburst of violence." The plane crash echoed other attacks over the years by lone criminals with a violent anti-government bent, which one expert called a distinctly American phenomenon. To be an act of terrorism, "there has to be some political motive and...

Churchill was right, history is written by the victors, and no one believes that more than than President Obama, which is ironic as one of the president's first moves was insulting our ally Great Britain, by refusing their gift of bust of Winston Churchill. The other night, our SCHMOTUS, Joe Biden, stunned audiences by claiming Iraq will go down as Obama's greatest achievements. Obama's opposed almost everything the the previous administration did to win the war including the Surge. Obama's only achievement in Iraq, is keeping with the plans left by the Bush administration, including the withdrawal plan. The same...

The Justice Department is poised this week to publicly defend a little-known law-enforcement practice that critics say may be the "sleeper" privacy issue of the 21st century: the collection of cell-phone "tracking" records that identify the physical locations where the phones have been. It may come as a surprise to most of the owners of the country's 277 million cell phones, but their cell-phone company retains records of where their device has been at all times—either because the phones have tiny GPS devices embedded inside or because each phone call is routed through towers that can be used to pinpoint...